Samsung Retains Top Position in Shrinking Global Smartphone Market

Samsung continued to dominate the declining smartphone market in the first quarter of 2018, having shipped 78 million devices that saw the company capture 21.7 percent market share, according to Counterpoint Research.

The South Korean tech giant’s shipments increased 5 percent following the release of its latest flagship smartphones – Galaxy S9 and S9+, the report said.

The global smartphone market, however, declined 3 percent in the quarter ending on March 31.

Apple also reported strong iPhone sales in shrinking global smartphone market in first quarter. The California-based company was the second most successful smartphone vendor with 52.2 million shipments and 14.5 percent market share.

“The waning smartphone demand is due to a slow-down in developed markets where replacement cycles are lengthening with overall smartphone features and design reaching its peak,” Tarun Pathak, Associate Director at Counterpoint Research, said.

The South Korean tech giant’s smartphone shipments increased 5 percent following the release of its latest flagships – Galaxy S9 and S9+

Huawei and Xiamoi followed Samsung and Apple with 10.9 percent and 7.5 percent market shares respectively.

Oppo was at fifth spot with 6.1 percent share.

Overall top ten vendors accounted for 76 percent of the global smartphone market, the report said.

The decline of the global smartphone market was attributed to the slower sales of smart devices in China in Q1 2018.

According to research firm Canalys, the smartphone shipments dropped to 91 million units during the first quarter of this year, a decline of 21 percent over the same period in 2017.

Huawei consolidated its leadership in the Chinese smartphone market by shipping over 21 million units and capturing a share of 24 percent.

Samsung shipped only 2 million devices in Q1 in the country, down from 4 million shipments reported in the same period a year ago.

Xiaomi was the only company to experience significant growth in the Chinese market, having shipped 12 million smartphone units to record an increase of 37 percent in sales.

Vivo and Oppo both recorded a decline of 10 percent in country’s market in the first quarter.

Top four players – Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Viva – together claimed a share of 73 percent in the Chinese market in Q1 of 2018.

Canalys Research analyst Mo Jia has predicted that Chinese smartphone market will return to growth in Q2 2018 when Huawei and Vivo launch their new flagships.

“China’s smartphone market may see a short period of stagnancy as vendors refocus on research and development, relying on new use cases to excite refreshes rather than spending heavily on the channel and marketing,” he said.